I am shocked that there are so many people surprised that UAL hired an FO? I know several FO's that have been hired at UAL in the last few months. They are all white males with civilian RJ experience only (non-interns, no family at UAL). Of course they have 4 year degrees and multiple internal recs but UAL hiring FO's is not a big surprise.

This is something that happened frequently at CAL in the past.

UAL is not concerned with hiring the most qualified-competetive pilots like DAL, SWA, FDX, etc. is.

Anyone who also knows about UAL hiring please feel free to back up my points.